Science, Music and Different Worlds

Attended the Graeme Clark Oration on Wednesday night, Victoria's most important lecture in the life sciences. Last year was Dr. Craig Venter; this year was Professor Terrence Sejnowski speaking on "The Computational Brain", specifically on the development of mathematical algorithms that mimic certain neurological abilities (e.g., speech acquisition, screening sound, focussed vision). It led me to engage in jotting down a few notes for the Unitarian Philosophy Forum. This weeks also saw an interesting discussion on whether alien fossils have or have not been discovered. Finally, I am listed as a speaker for the Humanity Plus conference in June on the topic "More Human Than Human: The Computation of Moral Reasoning".

Whilst on the topic of alien lifeforms went to the Hawkwind concert on Saturday night, a damn fine night. My review of a few paragraphs is available on Rocknerd. Later this week will go to see Leftfield. On related musical and dancing threads, Senator Mary Jo Fisher is an idiot; it is astounding that this is what constitutes a public representative in this country.

Sunday ran another session of Young Gods, with the unusual combination of Inuit and Tibetan myths. Afterwards spent time with Brendan E., where we watched more of the excellent series The Walking Dead, following by Ultramarine, based on the Warhammer 40K universe; it managed to capture the dominant themes (violence, paranoia, integrity etc) very well. Without a doubt I will have to include an article on said game-world for the next issue of RPG Review which is based around 'different worlds'.